NYC's Robin Hood Foundation gets award for service

NEW YORK—New York City's Robin Hood Foundation has received a lifetime achievement award from a national organization that promotes public service.

The Robin Hood Foundation was presented with the top prize at the Jefferson Awards ceremony in New York on Wednesday.

Robin Hood has donated $1.25 billion to fighting poverty in New York City since its founding in 1988.

The foundation played a lead role in fundraising for Superstorm Sandy relief.

Other honorees included former New York Jets defensive tackle Marty Lyons and entrepreneur Gerald Chertavian.

Two college students and a high school student received "Globechangers" youth service awards.

Lyons, a star under Paul "Bear" Bryant at the University of Alabama whose NFL career spanned 11 seasons, founded the Marty Lyons Foundation in 1982 to grant wishes to terminally ill children. The foundation has fulfilled more than 6,000 wishes.

Chartavian is the founder and CEO of Year Up, a one-year education and training program for low-income young adults in Boston.

"Globechangers" youth service awards went to Sejal Hathi, a Yale University senior whose international nonprofit Girls Helping Girls has trained and mentored thousands of girls worldwide to incubate entrepreneurial projects; Sam King, a Stanford University senior whose organization Code The Change has generated over $250,000 worth of value for the social sector; and Alexis Werner, a 17-year-old from the Pittsburgh area whose military veteran-focused group Seeds of Hope is expanding nationwide.

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The Jefferson Awards were co-founded by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1972. They honor individuals and companies for their efforts to make the world a better place.

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